'We Plan to Ensure Perfect Roads by End of year'
Road
Minister, recently, you were talking about expanding your road programme to "Operation 1,000 Roads". May we know how you assess the performance of "Operation 500 Roads"?
As I said earlier, we have reached about 80 per cent performance. But we still need to do a lot more to cover the remaining 20 per cent before the end of the year. We have applied for additional funds from the president and he has kindly approved it, so that they can give us money upfront. You know, they give us money every month; and the tendency is for it to drag on till December. But we want to take advantage of the dry season so that the three months allocation will be released, may be, in October, so that we will be able to do more work.
When do you think FERMA (Federal Roads Maintenance Agency) will resume activities?
October; immediately the fund is released.
How much are you expecting?
We have N11 billion to collect. They have given us about N5.2 billion. So, we have about another N5.8 billion to collect.
What would you say about the distribution of the roads that have so far been rehabilitated. There is an observation that FERMA concentrates more on the northern axis and in Lagos?
No; it is not possible. I am a minister for the Federal Republic of Nigeria to cover the entire nation; and I don't intend to discriminate. It has been evenly done. You can even see when we are giving money to the controllers, we give money on the basis of equity.
FERMA officials in Lagos have been accused of extorting money from the members of the public. What is the ministry doing about it?
That is not correct. These are touts. They are not our officials at all.
What of the face off between FERMA officials and LASTMA officials in Lagos State?
There is a committee established by the federal government to reconcile the two groups in the state.
Those fighting on behalf of FERMA are they really staff of FERMA?
(Ogunlewe cuts in... fighting for what?) FERMA officials and LASTMA officials have been fighting.
LASTMA is not expected to perform any duty on federal roads. That is the law; that is the constitution. There is no two ways to it. State authorities cannot perform any duty on federal properties. And that is universal; everywhere in the world.
There is one particular road that it seems the federal government has been playing politics with -that is the Onitsha-Owerri Road. It was once said that the contract for the dualisation of the road had been awarded. When President Olusegun Obasanjo was commencing his 2003 presidential campaign, he visited the road and claimed he was flagging off the dualisation project. But up till now, no activity is going on there; no construction company is on site. What exactly is the position of that road now?
No, there is a contractor there. What you can say is to query the competence of the contractor. But it is not that it has not been awarded; it is not that it is not on-going. So, it has been awarded; it is on-going.
What I intend to do -because the contractor has been hiding under the pretence of rain -immediately the rain subsides, I will invite him; and all of you will ask him question, or we go there. We are not backing any contractor. Once they are not performing, we expel them. And we have paid close to N6 billion now on that project.
So, the government is interested; the ministry is interested; and we are going to provide far more money for the road project in 2005.
Some Nigerians argue that the level of road maintenance in the country is not commensurate with the N10 million being given to the state controllers of FERMA monthly.
The N10 million is not only for road maintenance. It is for wash out too. If you see the nature of our soil, during the rainy season, there is this tendency of erosion attacking the highways, and even cutting each to half. We have to reinstate it and restore it. If we have the opportunity, we will all go on the field and you will see things for yourselves.
Even as you are traveling too, you notice some portions of the roads being attacked by erosion. One of the controllers did three bridges in Benue State with this money we gave him; and we are encouraging others to construct similar small, small bridges.
What measures have you put in place to monitor and equally check the abuse of this money by some contractors and FERMA officials?
We have the monitoring and evaluation committee both at the state and the national levels. And your colleagues are on this committee at both levels.
You were recently quoted to have said that people are welcome to criticize government as this would make government sit up. Don't you think that your position on this matter, if you were correctly quoted, runs counter to the disposition of this administration?
That is democracy?
But this is a government that is intolerant of criticism?
No,no,no. What about me? You are asking me questions now: how are we spending your money? What are we doing to ensure there is feedback mechanism. And I told you that your colleagues are members of these committees. So, if they come up with bad reports about this ministry, we make amends. Democracy is about criticism. How do you think we can improve if you don't criticize us?
By the end of the year, traffic will increase. What are you doing to ensure security of lives and property on the roads then?
That is what I said earlier; we have appealed to the president to release the funds -you know, the funds are released monthly. But we advised him not to wait till December. What is accruable in October, November and December, release all in October so that we can have opportunity of planning and making sure that all these roads are in perfect condition for the sallah, Christmas and New Year period. So, we are planning too.
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